Genesee County 911 center plans to take over private ambulance dispatches

GENESEE COUNTY -- It could take significantly less time to get emergency help in the county by this time next year with a new system for tracking ambulances with satellite technology.

The executive board of the county’s 911 Consortium is stepping up plans for direct dispatching of private ambulances, including the use of automatic vehicle locators that would tell the 911 center exactly which ambulance is closest to an emergency — not just which company has the closest base.

It’s a move that’s expected to cut sharply into wait times for patients compared to the current system in which 911 operators contact the company with the closest of 33 bases in the county, and the company dispatches its own ambulance.

“In a business where seconds count, anything is better than what we have right now,” said Jim Grady, operations manager for Patriot Ambulance, who predicts response times could be cut as much as four minutes on some runs.

That’s significant when private ambulances in the county take an average of about 6.4 minutes to get to the most serious emergencies after they are notified by 911, not including the time it takes the 911 center to dispatch a rig, according to the most recent data available from the county Medical Control Authority.

The 911 Executive Board told Director Lloyd Fayling to go ahead with plans for upgrading the dispatch center including adding with additional equipment and hiring additional employees to handle the added workload during a meeting last week.

“It’s going to create a better response time because we have ambulances on the street (and) not sitting in a barn,” Fayling said. “The area I’m going work hardest on is to make sure we cover those outlying areas.”

Private ambulance response times in the county have been a concern here for years, prompting the county Board of Commissioners to devise a new system to contract with one or more companies to provide emergency transports.

But a lawsuit has held up implementation of that ordinance, and Fayling said it’s time to start making the existing system work better although there “are many issues to be worked out.”

Fayling said he expects it will take 12-18 months to have the new system in place. He said he’s inviting ambulance companies to join in a discussion group about the future of the dispatch system. There will be start-up costs and “minimal annual costs” for the companies, he said.

Changes are coming nearly seven years after Stat EMS proposed similar reforms, which at the time were that were never carried out after they were opposed by county Sheriff Robert Pickell.

The sheriff said Monday that he is “100 percent in support of it” now.

“I’m excited about it and happy,” Trevithick said. “I think when we talk about EMS system problems in this county — and there are many — direct dispatching and AVLs are right at the top of the list.”

In the current system, when a call for help comes into 911, dispatchers use a database to determine which ambulance company base is closest to an emergency. Companies get that business based on how quickly they should be able to respond.

But some involved in the ambulance business have said the system encourages false reporting of ambulance locations because companies don’t want to pass up business and will send ambulances from other locations, stretching out response times.

In late 2004, suspicious Medical Control officials found two of nine bases they checked had actually been abandoned, and later that same year, The Flint Journal found almost 30 percent of ambulance company bases were not staffed during unannounced visits.

AVLs are designed to solve that problem, showing the exact location of ambulances — both those on the road and those parked in garages.

“The reality is we have 48 bases, which is a lot, (and) at peak times we have another 30 units on the road that could be right next to the (emergency) you want to get help to,” Trevithick said.

Fayling said the direct dispatching — 911 operator to ambulance — also will take ambulance company dispatchers out of the mix, saving precious time.